Streetscaping on Kansas Avenue, planned private developments in downtown and the construction of the Midwest Health Aquatic Center have all generated optimism, said people surveyed for the report put out by Atlanta-based Market Street Services, a national economic, communmity and workforce development consulting firm.

“Input participants said that these developments have already had a small positive impact on overall internal perceptions in the community,” the document said. “Some stakeholders described feeling for the first time that there is a ‘real energy’ in the community and that ‘things are happening.’”

But the document also proposed solutions. Those included enhancing this community’s “quality of place,” using its existing strengths to increase economic opportunity and working to keep talented young people from moving elsewhere.

The report resulted from work done by the Topeka-Shawnee County Holistic Economic Development Strategy Steering Committee.

The consultants sought to thoroughly assess the Topeka community’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges by acquiring public input that included interviews, focus groups and an online survey. A total of 2,295 people responded.

The survey statistically compared Topeka-Shawnee County with state and national averages, as well as averages for three counties with which it shares similar characteristics and/or competes for investment and jobs. Those are Polk County, Iowa, which includes Des Moines; Sangamon County, Ill., which includes Springfield; and Minnehaha County, S.D., which includes Sioux Falls.

The report identified what it described as “six key stories” that present a narrative discussion of the key issues facing Topeka and Shawnee County.

It started by describing what it called “A critical need to improve community pride.”

The report said one single issue — the community’s deep and persistent low morale — relates to nearly every other aspect of its competitiveness.

“This was by far the most common and troubling theme to emerge” from the public input process, the report said. It suggested the negativity discourages many of this community’s young people from staying here into adulthood.

The report indicated 56.1 percent of those polled said it was “not likely” their children would remain in the community once they’re grown, compared with 10.4 percent saying that was “very likely.”

The report sought to contextualize the following five stories it shared by ending each with a discussion of “Key Takeaways and Strategic Implications” targeted at helping the community transition from understanding into action and, when possible, pessimism into optimism.

Threats to the workforce

Topeka-Shawnee County has seen slower population growth over time than the state, the nation and many similar communities, the report noted. It said survey respondents expressed concern that the community was losing its best and brightest to other places, notably Lawrence and the Kansas City area.

“Much more than the ‘topline’ population growth figure, factors such as migration patterns, age dynamics, and educational attainment trends suggest that Topeka-Shawnee County has much work to do toward maintaining a stable and competitive workforce into the future,” the report said.

Educational attainment rates for younger residents of Topeka-Shawnee County fall behind the equivalent rates for the state, nation and other competitive communities, the report added.

It suggested “developing homegrown talent to ensure that the next generation of workers is prepared to contribute to and thrive in a vibrant community.”

The report also recommended Topeka focus on becoming more appealing to talented people who are already part of its workforce, to keep them from moving to the Lawrence and Kansas City areas.

Quality of place

Topeka must improve its quality of life and quality of place to retain its best and brightest residents, the report added. It said businesses here routinely tell prospective employees to work in Topeka but live in Lawrence or the Kansas-side suburbs of Kansas City to take advantage of their social offerings.

The report cited research indicating three factors primarily cause people to feel attached to a community, with those being social offerings, aesthetics and openness, with the latter being described as “how welcoming a place is to different types of people.”

Topeka lacks the type of gathering places and social opportunities other communities offer, while survey respondents showed a lack of excitement over the community’s aesthetic appearance and had mixed feelings about its openness, the report said.

It indicated addressing concerns in those areas “is critically important to the community’s ability to retain and attract talent and, by extension, compete in the present and future economy.”

Talent pipeline

Topeka-Shawnee County needs to develop a strong local and regional “talent pipeline” by ensuring that education and training providers are well-aligned and have the resources they need to prepare younger residents for college and careers, the report said.

It indicated that in terms of early childhood development, “more could, and should, be done to improve and expand the accessibility and availability of affordable, quality options for families across Topeka-Shawnee County.”

The report recommended continuing efforts to boost achievement in Topeka public schools, resurrecting a manufacturing technology program formerly offered by the Washburn Institute of Technology and expanding computer and information technology programs.

It added that “The community’s proximity to higher education institutions is a competitive advantage — and potentially a massive one.”

Using existing strengths

Though unemployment rates here are relatively low, Topeka-Shawnee County’s economic potential is inhibited by its having a small workforce at time when available talent is becoming the most important factor influencing a community’s competitiveness, the report said.

It noted that 38.3 percent of the community’s jobs are in the business sectors of government and health care, at a time when those sectors account nationally for 20.1 percent of total employment.

The report recommended Topeka-Shawnee County focus on strategic investments targeted at adding jobs in four target areas that saw considerable growth between 2005 and 2015. Those are food manufacturing, advanced systems technology, professional and financial services, and logistics and distribution.

“The community’s existing workforce and place-based assets are highly supportive of these fields, and three of the four sectors have exhibited strong growth in Topeka-Shawnee County in the past 10 years,” the report said.

Lagging behind

Though per capita income for Topeka-Shawnee County was lower than for all comparison geographies between 2004 and 2014, the report says overall per capita income here grew at a faster rate than inflation during that time period as measured by the Consumer Price Index for Midwest urban areas.

Still, it said: “The community cannot offer the same value proposition as other Midwestern communities with higher wages and similar low costs of living. Poverty is down overall but a frustratingly high proportion of residents — including more than one in five children — live below the poverty line.”

The report said the strategic implications it discussed could help address such concerns indirectly by creating better economic, training and educational opportunities for residents.

“But given the depth of some of these issues, it will also be necessary to maintain support for initiatives that provide services directly to individuals living in poverty or those otherwise in need,” it said.

Near its end, the report re-emphasized that Topeka-Shawnee County must not let low morale or negative attitudes stand in the way of progress.

It said, “In Market Street’s experience even self-image problems that have been decades in the making can be turned around in a short amount of time with simple, meaningful demonstrations of progress.”